Back when the Hobbit movies first came out, I was pretty vocal in my distaste for them. And I've never sat through the entire third one, because I just can't take that many CGI orc battles. But I've seen huge chunks of it. I still stand by most of my criticisms from a few years ago.

But something else happened. My sister, who was a cloistered nun, got cancer. She'd loved the LOTR films, which she saw on DVD (the cloistered life doesn't lend itself to going out to the movies). Said sister had a degree in Art, and could very much appreciate the artistry in the movies. She laughed and rolled her eyes at things like the skulls rolling around in the paths of the dead, but it didn't really bother her. She felt Jackson and crew had done something really wonderful.

In 1968 my sister, who was five years older than I, began reading me "The Hobbit." I was eight years old. She quit reading to me around the time of The Two Towers, and I finished the books myself (it took a long while). We both re-read them many times over the years. These were by far her all time favorite books (and mine). And she really loved the films.

She especially adored Ian McKellen's Gandalf, and Viggo's Aragorn (these being her favorite book characters-- when we were little and played "LOTR" she always got to be Gandalf).

She'd been praying for Jackson and crew the whole time the LOTR films were being made. Years later, the Hobbit movies were made. When they came out and I saw the first one, she asked me what I thought of it. I simply said "you didn't pray this time, did you."

Then she was diagnosed with cancer. My brother and I took her to chemo regularly for several years. And as each Hobbit movie came out on DVD, we'd sit in the chemo room or waiting room and watch them as time allowed. She borrowed the DVDs when she went home, and watched.

And she loved them. She again rolled her eyes and laughed at some of the excesses-- the things that drove me NUTS. She laughed at the pouring gold on Smaug scene. She just skipped ahead during a very long battle scene, but these things never bothered her. She loved the cast. She of course got her Ian McKellen back. She adored Bard and I remember one of her last hospital visits, she asked if I had the movie with me. She wanted to watch Bard face down Smaug again. She felt that scene was just so beautiful.

And as I sat and watched these films with her, and watched her so appreciate them, I began to appreciate them more.

My sister died of cancer in 2016. But sitting and watching the movies with her, and seeing her find such joy in the beauty that was there, and seeing her just shrug off the silly bits, made these movies so much better to me. They will always be loved by me, because she loved them.

Objectively I still have all my "issues" (and certain scenes I love). But the whole thing, warts and all, is precious to me now. And she did get me to see the beauty in certain scenes I hadn't appreciated before.

Glad you are able to enjoy them ET. For me PJ delivered the essential message of Tolkien's Hobbit with some amazing cinema (and some warts). This is something that LOTR doesn't deliver for me. My children, to whom I read the books before the movies came out, disagree with me... so it goes. The books haven't changed in any case.